Last night, I saw American Ballet Theatre’s production of La Bayadere at Lincoln Center. It was the second time this month that I’d seen the Solor variation performed. ABT cast 33-year-old Denis Matvienko from Ukraine as the love lorne warrior. But as far as Matvienko’s leaps stretched and as many times as his head whipped around to spot his pirouettes, his variation could not top the rendition that I saw two weeks ago. In footage from the 2010 Youth America Grand Prix, I saw 12-year-old Aran Bell give the performance of his life on a stage just one theater over from where a Principal dancer danced the same choreography last night at Lincoln Center.

Aran Bell is just one of the young athletes whose path to the Grand Prix is chronicled in Bess Kargman’s award winning documentary First Position. Bess told me during a phone interview that she made the film, which premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, with the purpose of discrediting ballet stereotypes. (Yes, you will see a successful black ballerina, a straight male dancer, and thin girls who aren’t starving themselves). It also breaks the mold of “dance movies,” which are generally thought of as niche films—only appealing to women or former dancers.

The six central characters are all training for and trying to make it to the final round in the the largest youth ballet competition in the world. The Youth America Grand Prix which is held each year in New York City and has awarded over $2 million in scholarships to competitors over its 13 seasons.

In 2009, then-journalist Bess Kargman was living in the city and walked past Lincoln Center, where she noticed a banner for the Grand Prix. She snuck inside and was awestruck by an 11-year-old girl who had taken charge of the massive stage. At that moment, Bess says she decided to make the dance documentary. And the girl on stage, Miko Fogarty, would be the first dancer cast in the film.

Having studied ballet herself as a young girl, Bess had always wanted to break the myths of the dance world in a film. In graduate school while studying journalism, Bess took a class on documentary filmmaking, but never even completed a documentary short. Six weeks after committing to the task of making First Position a reality, Bess began doing preliminary filming just to see if she could do it. To cast the film, she enlisted the help of the Grand Prix, which sees 5,000 competitors each year. They gave her a huge list of contestants, which Bess began to narrow down by talking to the dancers and watching videos of them on stage. She ended up being drawn to a group of 6 main characters–all of whom were special and extremely talented in Bess’s eyes (she says that 3/4 of the dancers featured in the film weren’t even on the initial list from the Gran Prix).

For the next year and a half, Bess and her crew traveled the world to film the dancers in their hometowns, at their home ballet studios, and in preliminary Grand Prix competitions. “We swooped in and out of all their lives,” she said. “We had so much footage.” The documentary culminates at the Youth America Grand Prix finals at New York’s Lincoln Center–where Miko Fogarty danced again, this time captured by Bess on film.

ABT’s La Bayadere

Bess told me she doesn’t dance anymore, saying with a laugh, “It’s not so fun when you lose your turn out and flexibility.”  As a young girl, Bess realized that she liked other sports just as much as dance and had to decide which one she would fully devote herself to. She chose ice hockey and continued to play it through her college career. Spending some of her formative years in a ballet studio gave her a perspective that many athletes don’t have of ballet as a rigorous, physically and emotionally challenging sport.  First Position clearly displays that point-of-view, showing how dancers must sacrifice most of their childhood if they want to dance for a living. Unlike other career paths in which a person can flounder into their late 20s and still have time to master a craft, the preteen years in a dancer’s life rival that of other professional athletes. Those years when most kids are only working towards graduating from middle school are critical in determining if a dancer will ever get a job in the industry (after which they’ll likely be forced to “retire” in their early 30s).

With the hope that the film will inspire dancers and non-dancers alike, Bess said that dance enthusiasts are still the “champions of this film.” She constantly receives e-mails from dancers around the country asking how they can see documentary, and if it will be coming to a theater in their area. The success of her first film was not only a great shock to Bess, but also to the dancers featured. “I told them, ‘I really want you to be in this, but I honestly don’t know if anyone will ever see it.’ I didn’t even know if I’d ever finish it!”

Aran Bell as Solor from La Bayadere. From the First Position trailer.

Last May, I wrote about a new NYC tourist attraction known as The Ride. A theatrical experience where the stage is the Manhattan sidewalk that the audience views from a high-tech tour bus. Now, The Ride is casting performers through an Open Casting Call Video Contest on Facebook.

According to the press release, they’re looking for “circus talent, unicycle riders, jugglers, carnival talent, clowns, sideshow oddities, street performers, unique and well done musical instruments performers, contortionists, acrobats, hula hoopers, diablos tricksters, rolla bollas, fire breathers & eaters, break dancers, stilts performers, trampoline acts, saxophone players, street magicians, straight jacket escape artists, snake charmers, or something so unique it has to be seen to be believed.”

It was fascinating to see how food was involved in the evolution of immigrant neighborhoods. We covered so many historical eateries (including the oldest Italian cheese shop in America; the oldest family run Thai restaurant in New York; America’s first espresso bar). The company’s founder, Alana, led my tour on Saturday. She gave background on not only the buildings and past residents of Mulberry Street, but explained to us how the type of prosciutto we sampled (Proscuitto di San Daniele) is prepared near the Italian Alps and Adriatic Sea and how to tell it apart from Proscuitto di Parma.

The truth of it is, even as New Yorkers (especially as New Yorkers?), there are things we miss. I knew the stops on Mulberry Street where I take visitors, and I have a go-to Dim Sum place in Chinatown, but what about every place and person that I have never noticed in between? Right near the Five Points, we saw what Alana refers to as the “most picturesque street in Chinatown” (pictured right). We stopped by the “Bloody Angle” and visited a nearly hidden Chinatown bakery with the most beautiful and delicious lychee cupcakes.

While my tour had visitors from such locals as Canada, D.C., and New Orleans, I would not only recommend this tour for visitors. It was a great Saturday morning activity (tours start at 10:30am), and by Monday I had already retraced our steps to find Di Palo’s where Alana said they sell great homemade pasta and marinara for at-home cooking. The bonus of taking the tour as a New Yorker is that I get to continuously reap the rewards of the neighborhoods we discovered. But whether you’re a born and bred city resident, a transplant, or a first-time visitor, you are sure to leave with a “bite of the Big Apple” with Ahoy New York’s Food Tour.

In 2010, it is estimated that 136 people jumped in front of a train and were killed (that’s about 2 a week). According to this Q&A with a Subway Conductor, when a station is closed for a “Police Investigation,” it’s code for “suicide by train.”

I receive emergency text messages and emails from Notify NYC, which let New Yorkers know of traffic alerts, subway changes, weather alerts, etc. Below are the subway closures due to Police Activity that I have received since my post in January. Also included are links to documented subway deaths.

March 13 (today): 
Police Activity closed F train
9:10 am – man killed by E train
2:02 pm –  person hit by F train

March 9:  
Police Investigation closes L train
man killed crossing tracks at Morgan Ave L station

Feb 29: 2 men killed at 72nd Street stop within hours of one another

Feb 25: Police Investigation suspends 4 and 6 trains

Feb 14: Police Activity closes J/M trains

Feb 11: Police Activity reroutes D train

Feb 9: Police Activity stops 4/5/6 trains

Jan 21:
Police Activity suspends L train
8:25 am – man killed by L train
4pm – man hit by A train
10:10pm – man killed by L train

Jan 19: Police Activity reroutes 4 trains

 
What do you think? Have subway-related deaths increased? (If so, why?) Or has awareness of them just grown as we become more virtually connected with things like the Notify NYC text alert system and local news sites like Gothamist? Either way, I cannot help but be upset by and freaked out every time I received a Notify NYC Police Activity alert.

photo via TrippedMedia

The internet is abuzz today about news posted by Gothamist that there were 4 subway-related deaths this weekend. The story is sickening and gruesome to read, as it includes a quote from an EMT that describes the varying types of death-by-subway scenarios that emergency responders encounter. It’s a scary thought, but it happens and we should all exercise caution when we hear Carolyn Hopkins’ voice tell us to “stand away from the platform edge.”

In October, The Village Voice compiled a Q&A with a Subway Conductor as found on Reddit. Below is his advice of what to do if you fall on the tracks:

“The best thing you can do is run as far down the platform as you can (in the opposite direction from where the train enters the station) and wave your arms frantically to get the train operator and passenger’s attention. Believe me, the passengers WILL be doing the exact same thing, as nobody wants to see you get run over and their train get delayed. If you can get to the far end of the platform, it gives the train more room to stop, and there is a ladder at the end of each platform where you can climb back up — do NOT try to climb up from where you are. So many people have been killed trying to jump back up rather than getting away from the entrance end of the station.

Do NOT trust the pits between the tracks — they are often right next to the third rail which can be just as dangerous (and note that the wooden planks are not designed to hold a human’s weight – they are there to protect the energized rail from drips and weather) and the train operator is less likely to see you if you’re in there. And don’t duck under the train, because most stations do not have enough clearance for the average human. And do NOT jump down onto the tracks to try to save someone else. The best thing you can do is run on the platform towards the tunnel where the train enters so you can get the operator’s attention sooner. Waving your arms over the tracks will tell the operator to stop immediately.”

via Jezebel and Alexander McAdams

Imagine if content on the internet was restricted and censored. So just anybody couldn’t put anything they want online. Does that not defeat the purpose of the internet as a medium for sharing information? The world wide web would loose it’s zest, it’s allure, it’s personality. Today, numerous sites are restricting information as a signal for you to pay attention and take action.

“Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.” (Take from Google)

Take action by signing the Google petition or contacting your Representative before he votes on Jan 24th. 

If passed, these bills would do more than end piracy. Click to read the House bill summary and the Senate bill summary.

*UPDATE: Members of Congress speak out

GOOGLE:

FACEBOOK:

WORDPRESS:

INFORMATIVE GOOGLE INFOGRAPHIC (click to enlarge)

MANHATTAN USER’S GUIDE NEWSLETTER:

BUZZFEED:

WIRED:

CRAIGSLIST:

OPEN LETTER FROM MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION (via Buzzfeed)

See other site blackouts on Buzzfeed.

The human condition to ban together against a common enemy and for a common cause.

The flaws in the US Justice System…and the farce of innocent until proven guilty. 

Jason Baldwin with Paradise Lost Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. Left: 1994. Right: 2010, photo by Jonathan Silberberg

Last night I saw a screening of Paradise Lost 3 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. This is third instillation of documentaries about the conviction and imprisonment of three men known now as the West Memphis Three.

The story of Damien Echols, Jesse Misskelly, and Jason Baldwin is tragic, unbelievable and enraging if you read it (which you should). But after seeing the film last night, I literally have not stopped thinking about their story. And the story of others like them.

If you have HBO, watch it tomorrow night. If you never see another documentary as long as you live, watch it. 1/12/11 @ 9pm.